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culture
czech Film
Czech filmmakers have consistently plied their trade from the silent to
the modern era. Czechoslovakia was nominated for the Best Foreign
Film Oscar for four straight years from 1966 to 1969, winning twice.
Directed by Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos, The Shop on Main Street
(Obchod na korze, 1965) is about an old Jewish widow and the “Aryan
controller” given jurisdiction over her button shop during the Nazi
occupation. Closely Observed Trains (Ostře sledované vlaky, 1966),
directed by Jiří Menzel also brought home the Academy Award. Miloš
Forman’s Loves of a Blonde (Lásky jedné plavovlásky, 1965) and
The Fireman’s Ball (Hoří, má panenko, 1967) were both nominated
for Academy Awards. Forman went on to achieve great success in
Hollywood with One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus (shot in
Prague) and numerous other pictures. Today’s popular directors are
Jan Hřebejk, who gave us Cosy Dens (Pelíšky, 1999), and Divided We
Fall (Musíme si pomáhat, 2000); David Ondříček, director of Loners
(Samotáři, 2000) and Grandhotel (2006); and Jan Svěrák who, with
his father Zdeněk serving as writer and star, brought home the Oscar
with Kolja (1996).
czech liteRAtuRe
Early 19th-century romantic poet Karel Hynek Mácha’s Máj (May)
is considered one of the most important works of Czech literature.
Mácha influenced the next generation of Czech writers, including
realist author Jan Neruda, who wrote Tales of the Little Quarter
(Povídky malostranské) in 1878. The late 19th-century Golden Age of
Czech literature also produced Božena Němcová’s masterpiece The
Grandmother (Babička). Czech arts and letters shined on into the early
20th century: Jaroslav Hašek wrote his war satire The Good Soldier
Švejk (Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka za světové války) in 1920;
Franz Kafka was the darling of literary Prague. Science fiction writer
Karel Čapek was nominated for a Nobel-prize in 1936. In the decades
following the Warsaw Pact invasion of 1968, conditions again became
harsh for writers. Milan Kundera’s first novel, The Joke (Žert) appeared
in 1967. Ivan Klíma and Josef Škvorecký gained worldly reputations.
The plays and poems of Václav Havel were published via underground,
or samizdat, press. Jáchym Topol wrote brutally honest accounts of
daily life in Czechoslovakia. The fall of communism in 1989 meant
the return of artistic freedoms. Michael Viewegh is a familiar name
in contemporary fiction; Petra Hůlová, one of the Czech Republic’s
youngest writing stars, took the literary scene by storm with her novel,
All This Belongs to Me (Paměť mojí babičce).
czech muSic
What do the American National Football League (NFL), Neil Armstrong,
and Britain’s Hovis Bakery have in common? Nineteenth-century Czech
romantic composer Antonín Dvořák. The NFL uses Symphony Number
9 as a “comeback” theme song in a number of its television specials;
Neil Armstrong walked on the moon to New World Symphony; the British
bread maker Hovis used the same piece for one of its TV ad campaigns.
If these facts still don’t clue you into the Czech Republic’s international
musical importance, maybe Prague’s Mozart connection will: the great
Austrian composer debuted his opera Don Giovanni in Prague in 1787. The
1860s introduced two very powerful musical forces to the world: Bedřich
Smetana (1824–84) and Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904), who would go
down in history as not only unrivaled maestros in their own country, but
as geniuses on an international scale. These composers undoubtedly
contributed to the quality of and popular interest in Czech music. Bohuslav
Martinů (1890–1959) and Alois Hába (1893–1973) would compose
works that examined the plight of modern man. The year 1946 heralded
the first annual Prague Spring Music Festival. Still in existence today, it is
just one of many classical music festivals held in Prague each year.
czech ARt
The story of Czech art begins with the Věstonice Venus, named after
the site in Moravia where archeologists discovered the 30,000-yearold
clay-and-ash sculpture. The next important piece on the timeline
is the Vyšehrad Codex, a late 11th-century illuminated manuscript
housed in the Czech National Library. The Romanesque tradition
that followed appears in church frescoes such as the triptych of
St. George’s Cloister at Prague Castle. Rudolph II’s Mannerist court
painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1532–93) composed portraits of the
Emperor from flowers and fruit. Baroque master Petr Brandl (1668–
1735) painted large altar pictures that portrayed biblical scenes.
The construction of the National Theater (1868–83) and the
Rudolfinum (1885) embodied the 19th century renaissance in Czech
culture. This generation gave way to smaller modernist movements.
Art Nouveau is where the name Alfons Mucha (1860–1939)
reverberates loudest. Theaters in Paris commissioned him to design
programs and posters for Parisian actress Sarah Bernhardt. Painters
Emil Filla and Bohumil Kubišta define the cubist era in Czech
painting; František Kupka (1871–1957) pioneered Czech abstract
painting. Photographer Josef Sudek’s (1896–1976) haunting still
lifes made him one of the first photographers to be honored by the
Czech government. Sculptor David Černý (1967) embodies the spirit
of the postmodern.
JeWiSh pRAGue
Jewish people in the Czech lands have touched the national culture
in a way that is unique in Central Europe. The first were merchants
invited by Bohemian kings to bolster trade links. At first Jews lived
on both sides of the river, but by the late 11th century a more tightly
knit Jewish town emerged in Staré Město, probably as a result of
anti-Semitic attacks. In the 13th century, Rome decreed that Jews
and Christians live separately, and the ghetto was walled in.
The Jewish Town Hall, Maisel Synagogue, and High Synagogue were
built during the reign of Rudolf II (1576–1612). At the same time,
Rabbi Löw, chief rabbi of Prague, was studying the mystic teachings
of the Kabbalah and, according to legend, building the Golem. In
1648 the Jewish community won the favor of Ferdinand III when
they repelled the invading Swedish army on Charles Bridge, and he
enlarged the ghetto in gratitude.
A century later Maria-Theresa (1740–80) sent the entire Jewish
population of Prague into exile, but welcomed them back three
years later when her ministers noticed the deficit in the tax system.
Emperor Joseph II’s (1780–90) 1781 Edict of Tolerance gave non-
Catholics the right to education, ended the compulsory dress code,
and opened the ghetto’s gates.
A century later the Jewish community honored Joseph by renaming
the ghetto Josefov. As richer Jewish families left the ghetto, Prague’s
poorest inhabitants moved in. The area became a slum, and in 1893
the city authorities razed most of the ghetto and constructed the Art
Nouveau Josefov of today.
On March 15, 1939, Nazi troops occupied Prague. Jews were
forbidden from leaving the ghetto. In November 1941 the first
transport left Prague for Terezín, 60 km to the northwest. Three
quarters of the 55,000 Jews living in Prague at the time of the
occupation were murdered or starved to death in the camps. In the
communist era, intolerance towards any form of religion led to a
further dwindling of Jewish culture. Since the Velvet Revolution the
Jewish community has been undergoing a gradual rebirth.
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